Will Arizona Football have any of its players drafted in the NFL?

With just hours until the 2019 NFL Draft, we will soon learn the potential fate of a few former Arizona Football players and whether they will be drafted.

It’s been a tough time for Arizona Football and its fans these past few years, as Wildcats and the NFL have been complete strangers. Perhaps that trend can be reversed starting at this years’ NFL Draft.

So just how distant have things been between Arizona and the NFL? Well, since 2012, Arizona has had just nine draft picks. Of those nine draft picks, only four remain on NFL rosters at this time.

Arizona Wildcats

Their highest draft pick in that stretch, is former Super Bowl winner and MVP Nick Foles. Foles of course was drafted in the 3rd round, 88th overall by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2012, but recently signed a huge deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Is that a problem? Well, that depends on how you would interpret and look at all of this. While I may be in the minority here in thinking it’s not a complete lack of talent, I do think there are a myriad of reasons that have been a factor to Arizona’s misfortunes, all seemingly boiling down to former head coach Rich Rodriguez.

As it should be well-known by now, Rodriguez typically recruited “system-fit” players, guys that were maybe smaller/ lightly-recruited, but fit Rodriguez’s system well. And well, the proof is in the pudding, in his six seasons as head coach, he won 43 games, their most since the Dick Tomey era.

However, it came at a cost, as the program suffered in not producing NFL-level talent. Now it’s Kevin Sumlin’s chance to turn around Arizona’s misfortunes.

For now, we await the NFL Draft on Thursday evening, with the next group of Wildcat NFL Draft hopefuls anxious to learn their fate!

At this point, the group of Wildcats with the highest potential of being drafted are; PJ Johnson, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, Shawn Poindexter and Layth Friekh most notably among others.

While the outlook and draft potential of these individuals isn’t very high, however it is quite possible Arizona at least gets one, maybe two guys drafted in the 2019 Draft.

These four seemingly had solid pro days and are undoubtedly Arizona’s best players in the NFL Draft. Hopefully they get their chance!

At Zona Zealots, we are hoping to see our Cats get their opportunity and more importantly get drafted in the NFL Draft! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!